Luther Burbank

0 fragrant, sweet-boughed Lebanon!
You shelter 'neath protecting bowers
A man beloved as far as sun
Shall ever warm or spring bring flowers.
His creed of life was simple, good;
He labored with the lowly bud;
He toiled and ever understood
The power willed to him of God.

O soul of genius, Nature's leaven,
Endowed with far-discerning eye
To sense the embryonic gem
Wherein extraordinary species lie!
Wherever blooms and fruits shall be,
They'll monument this wizardry.

^__Frances Ingalls Shinn

Contemporary Kansas Poetry
Helen Rhoda Hoopes
page 106
(Kansas City: Joseph D. Havens Company. 1927)